A new study on Jamaica’s digital services sector has been published by Nearshore Americas highlighting the vast potential of the sector.

The study, a white paper that shines a light on Jamaica’s rising digital services sector points to the huge potential to grow into a digital hub whilst articulating the country’s rapidly developing tech talent as one such reason.

With annual revenue of more than US$700 million, Jamaica’s digital services industry is already supporting 65 companies and over 36,000 employees.

The paper reports that though the Caribbean island is already known for its tourism and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service industries, the potential to grow into a digital hub is a distinct possibility. According to the white paper, an increasing number of Jamaicans are entering tertiary education institutions to learn digital skills suitable for Nearshore work.

Universities are now producing some 17,000 professionals annually. Seeing demand increase, the study points to the fact that many training institutes have started teaching software development and related fields such as cyber-security, artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

Intention of the study

This white paper is intended to aid business owners and information technology managers, who want more value from outsourced services in this new business context. While the pandemic changed the expectations that companies have of their outsourcing providers, decision-makers also face the need to rapidly integrate new technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

Nearshore Americas reports that the study showed that these trends have impacted the geography of technological services, as many companies look for added value in new emerging markets with the digital capabilities and the qualified workforce to support their needs. As of 2019, software development accounted for just two per cent of Jamaica’s digital services sector.

But, as the white paper found, there is now huge potential for expansion. An example of the sector’s recent success is homegrown cloud services providers, Knightfox.

The software development sector “has the backing of the highest levels of the government,” says the paper, and is supported by existing ICT infrastructure and IT services.

Jamaica has an advisory council dedicated to developing market intelligence, and coordinating tech training. The council came into existence following the 2019 agreement between the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government of Jamaica for boosting the country’s BPO and technology outsourcing services.